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66652 Borasisi

binary trans-Neptunian object

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ156341 ↗
Source-derived summary

66652 Borasisi, or as a binary (66652) Borasisi–Pabu (provisional designation 1999 RZ253), is a binary classical Kuiper belt object. It was discovered in September 1999 by Chad Trujillo, Jane X. Luu and David C. Jewitt and identified as a binary on 23 August 2003 by K. Noll and colleagues using the Hubble Space Telescope.

Binary

In 2003 it was discovered that Borasisi is a binary with the components of comparable size (about 100–130 km) orbiting the barycentre on a moderately elliptical orbit. The total system mass is about 3.4 × 1018 kg.

The companion (66652) Borasisi I, named Pabu, orbits its primary in 46.2888 ± 0.0018 days on an orbit with a semi-major axis of 4528 ± 12 km and an eccentricity 0.4700 ± 0.0018. The orbit is inclined with respect to the observer by about 54° meaning that is about 35° from the pole-on position.

Physical properties

The surface of both components of the Borasisi–Pabu system is very red.

Naming

Borasisi is named after a fictional creation deity taken from the novel Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. In the book, Borasisi is the Sun and Pabu is the name of the Moon:

Borasisi, the sun, held Pabu, the moon, in his arms, and hoped that Pabu would bear him a fiery child. But poor Pabu gave birth to children that were cold, that did not burn; and Borasisi threw them away in disgust.

Editorial summary

“66652 Borasisi” enters the record as binary trans-Neptunian object. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Borasisi, binary and trans-Neptunian can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1999, 2003, 1018—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Borasisi, binary and trans-Neptunian.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“66652 Borasisi” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Borasisi, binary and trans-Neptunian provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q156341. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1999, 2003 and 1018.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “66652 Borasisi”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 66652 Borasisi primary sources, 66652 Borasisi archive and Borasisi research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “66652 Borasisi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.